The Shift and Repositioning of Spatial Narratives Surrounding Impoverished Chinese Youth: A Study on the Evolution and Recontextualization of Their Living Conditions

This research examines how impoverished youth's perceptions of space, both real dwelling spaces and abstract social progress areas, are evolving. It examines in particular how the problems of'snail homes' and 'ant tribes', which were big difficulties connected to living spaces in the early 2010s, are continuing in what social context, and how disadvantaged youth are generating new narratives within this. They deploy narratives of 'disgust and exclusion' and'sympathy and empathy' towards poverty at the same time, eventually demonstrating new attitudes and actions in reaction to the state's narrative that has backed the development logic. Of course, their living conditions have not changed significantly, but the young are now learning to collect and recontextualize their own experiences and narratives in limited living spaces. Furthermore, in terms of social progress, they choose employment that provide stability in their lives rather than a single direction of travel focused in the city or the quest of tremendous achievement. Even people with strong academic credentials opt to go to the competitive perimeter, advance their jobs, and then return to the core city. The author believes that their psychological state is not entirely free of the stress of a competitive society and the narrative of competition, but that they are becoming psychologically stronger through lightness rather than previous heaviness, and cynicism and joy rather than sadness or despair. When reading impoverished youth's actions as signals of social transformation, it is assumed that the spectrum of interpretations will expand as we approach closer to future China.